Finding Our Religion (Recap of Hofstra vs. Appalachian State)

It was about 9:45 AM yesterday, on a crisp Sunday morning in Columbia, South Carolina when Matthew, aka my nine year old color analyst, and I set out on our journey.  As I drove our 2008 Honda CRV down Forest Drive heading towards the ramp for I-77 North to Charlotte, we came up on the intersection of Shandon Baptist Church, where Matthew plays for their Upward Bound 4th grade basketball team.   A Columbia City Police Officer was in the role of crossing guard, stopping traffic to allow the church's congregation members to turn left into the long church entrance for 10:00 AM mass.

After about thirty seconds, she let traffic, which included us, to go through.   For those entering Shandon Baptist Church on a beautiful Sunday, they were about to get their religion.   On this day, two Lutherans, one baptized (Matthew) and one confirmed (me), were going to find our other religion.  Our religion this Sunday was a Hofstra college basketball game, which was three hours away in Boone, North Carolina.

It all started on my birthday on February 15, 2011.  I had been a long time season ticket holder for Hofstra and my blog, the College Hardwood was in the midst of its sixth season.  But until that day, which happened to be my birthday, Matthew had never gone to a Hofstra basketball game.

Finally, as a birthday present to me, Matthew joined me for the game between William and Mary and Hofstra at the Mack Arena.   And what a game it was!  This was the famous game where Charles Jenkins had not one, BUT TWO buzzer beaters; one to force overtime and one to win the game in overtime.   The shots made Sportscenter that night and are permanently, well hopefully permanently, up on a Hofstra video on YouTube.

That day, which I chronicled in one of my favorite all time articles on my blog, forever changed Matthew.  Matthew not only became a die-hard college basketball fan, but a lover of basketball in general.  If Matthew isn't playing baseball, his first love, he often has a basketball in his hand.  And come January, he will play in organized basketball games for the first time in his life.

During the 2011-12 season, where I covered fifty nine Division I games for the Mid Majority as well as my site, Matthew was my frequent companion.   He truly was my color analyst for thirty three games during that season.  Matthew was even the subject of one my articles that season, as I featured the Binghamton-Hofstra game around his view of a college basketball game.

When we finally moved down to Columbia, South Carolina in February 2013 as a family, after I had been in Columbia for sixth months already, one thing that changed was no longer seeing Hofstra on a regular basis.   Matthew and I would see them when we were up in New York to visit, including last season, when they defeated NJIT at the Mack Center.  Yes, the same NJIT team that defeated #17 Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday.

But as the ever observant Matthew pointed out to me, this was the first time we would see Hofstra outside of being in New York.   This was something I took for granted all the years I made road trips to Drexel, Towson, Delaware and of course, to Richmond for the CAA Tournament, among many other places to see Hofstra college basketball games.

Appalachian State, Hofstra's opponent on Sunday, is located in Boone, North Carolina, which is a three hour trip from Columbia.   Boone is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is about 3300 feet above sea level.   To get to Appalachian State from Columbia, basically you take I-77 North to I-485 West, to I-85 South and then NC Route 321.

Route 321 takes you from Gastonia, through Hickory, Lenoir, scenic Blowing Rock and finally to our destination, Boone.    Along the way you will find a lot of local North Carolina furniture stores, antiques, general stores and trading posts and a huge gem and fossil shop.  Route 321, especially towards Blowing Rock and Boone, is a very windy, scenic road as you cut through the mountains and also leads to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

You will also find on Route 321 Tweetsie Railroad and Wild West Theme Park, one of the first theme parks in the United States.   The 200 acre theme park is open between April and October and features two vintage steam locomotives, which you can take on a 3 mile ride.   The park first opened in 1957.

As I noted previously, on the way to Appalachian State, you also pass through Blowing Rock, a very scenic town, which features "The Blowing Rock",   The Blowing Rock is "an immense cliff" that's 4000 feet above sea level and where if you stand on the cliff and throw out a light object over the gorge below, the winds will actually blow the object back to you.  Blowing Rock holds several festivals a year, including Winterfest on January 25 and 26,

We reached Boone around 12:45 PM.   It's a town of about 17,000 people, which about matches the student population of Appalachian State.  Appalachian State University was formed in 1899 and sits on 1300 acres of land.

The impressive Holmes Convocation Center stands at the entrance to the university,   It's an 8500 seat all purpose arena that opened in November, 2000 with a basketball game between North Carolina and Appalachian State.    The school's colors are gold and black and the inside of the arena holds true to their school colors.  If you are a Steelers fan, this is the arena for you.

I parked the CRV in a parking garage on Rivers Street, a five minute walk from the Holmes Dome, as it is affectionately called.  When we got to the Northwest entrance, we found several Hofstra fans had made the trip, including three recent Hofstra alums that worked at WRHU and now live in  Winston Salem and Durham, North Carolina.   They knew me from my tweets with Defiantly Dutch, aka Jerry Beach.

The helpful Mountaineers' staff saw us all congregated and said that the will call tickets were located on the Southeast entrance, which was a short walk from our current location.   We made the walk to the Will Call entrance and picked up our tickets, then said our goodbyes to each other as we hoped the game would be worth the trip.   Matthew and I then made a short walk down to our seats in Lower Section Nine.

The tickets were left to me by Appalachian State Head Coach Jim Fox.   Jim's brother, Jeff played on the last two Hofstra basketball teams to make the NCAA Tournament in 2000 and 2001.   I am friends with Jeff from his student days at Hofstra Law School, where I used to work.  

Jim Fox is in his first season as Head Coach of the Mountaineers.  Previously, Coach Fox was the Associate Head Coach for Davidson College under Head Coach Bob McKillop.   He was on the coaching staff of Davidson since 2001 and was responsible for recruiting and player development, including one Stephen Curry.  Prior to that, Fox was the associate head coach of St Dominic's in Oyster Bay and the head coach of the AAU Long Island Lightning team.  One of his players was Matt McKillop, Bob's son, who went on to play at Davidson and is now an assistant coach.

After losing their first two games, the Mountaineers had won three straight games in a row, including an upset win at Virginia Tech.   I figured I would see the classic Davidson offense, which prides itself on player and  ball movement.  Having seen several Davidson games in the past two years, I truly appreciate their style of play.

I was also looking forward to seeing the Hofstra team for the first time live this season.  I had followed the Pride on the live streams from the Hofstra Website, including their most recent fourteen point win over Norfolk State, as well as their two games on WatchESPN.   They have an exciting brand of offense and between Coach Fox's style of play and Coach Joe Mihalich's style of play,  Matthew and I expected a high scoring game.

Well, what we got was somewhat different, but nevertheless fun.

Due to injuries to Rokas Gustys and Moussa Kone, the Pride were down to only two big men, Andre Walker and Malik Nichols.   And with the Mountaineers having at least five players that were six foot seven or taller, Hofstra was going to have to work really hard at keeping Appalachian State off the glass.

And the game started right out with one of the Mountaineers big men, Tommy Spagnolo grabbing an offensive rebound and getting fouled on the putback attempt by Walker.  Spagnolo hit one of two free throws to give Appalachian State the early lead.   The Pride would score seven of the next ten points however, as Juan'ya Green nailed a three pointer to give the Pride a 7-3 lead.

The Mountaineers would score the next five straight points as Tab Hamilton's three gave App State an 8-7 lead.  But the Pride would reel off a 12-2 run over the next four plus minutes.  Jamall Robinson's three pointer gave the Pride a 19-10 lead with about ten minutes left in the half.

What was impressing me about Hofstra was not the offense, though the Pride were fine on that end for the first ten minutes.  But it was their defense that was very solid throughout the game.  Appalachian State, with their Davidson style, constant ball and player movement offense, made the Hofstra players really work on defense.  But the Pride were equal to the challenge, forcing three turnovers in that span.

Basketball is a game of runs and it stood to reason that the Mountaineers would respond.  And they did with an 8-0 spurt.  Frank Eaves, Appalachian State's leading scorer on the season, would hit one of two free throws to cut the deficit to one, 19-18.

Hofstra would have a spurt of their own, First, Matthew called Brian Bernardi's three pointer to put the Pride up four.   Hofstra would end up outscoring App State 8-2 as Ameen Tanksley continued his torrid three point shooting on the season with another bomb from beyond the arc to make it 27-20.  The Pride had several chances to extend the lead but failed for the most part.   As a result, the Mountaineers behind Eaves, chipped away at the lead and were only down 29-26 at the half.

After Bernardi nailed another three to put Hofstra up six, 32-26, Appalachian State made a concerted effort to use their size to their advantage. Spagnolo and Griffin Kinney dominated the smaller Pride lineup over the next three minutes, either scoring or grabbing offensive rebounds at will.  They combined for all nine of the Mountaineers' points in that span, with Spagnolo putting Appalachian State ahead 35-34.

Neither team would score for the next three minutes in what became a defensive struggle.  Finally, Nichols, who is a very explosive player, scored on a layup to give Hofstra the lead back at 36-35. Jacob Lawson would give Appalachian State the lead back on a dunk, 37-36.

The Pride would regain the lead, but they would be hampered by their one negative constant on the season; free throw shooting.   Over the next two minutes, Tanksley and Nichols would combine to miss on all four of their free throw attempts.   What could have been a nine point lead, was only a five point lead, 42-37, after Nichols hit another layup.

The Mountaineers took advantage and trimmed the lead back to two, 44-42 on a Jake Babic three pointer.   Off a Bernardi missed three point attempt, Appalachian State had a chance to tie but missed a layup with 7:32 left.  That would be as close as the Mountaineers would get the rest of the game.

Over the next three and a half minutes, Hofstra would outscore Appalachian State 10-2.  They did this by attacking the basket, either by scoring layups or getting fouled.  This time, the Pride would hit four of their five free throws; two by Tanksley, two by Green.  Tanksley's layup and one gave Hofstra a 54-44 lead with just under four minutes left in the game. Tanksley would miss on the free throw for the three point play, but the damage was done.

From there, the Mountaineers would only score seven more points in the game, five of which came on free throws as the Pride clamped down on them.  With a little over three minutes left, Green did a three sixty spin move in the lane for a layup.  Words could not do that layup justice.  The Pride would also hit ten straight free throws in a row and went on to win 68-51, in a game that was closer than the final score appeared.

The Pride showed nice balance on offense, with five players in double figures scoring.   Green led the way with seventeen points, while Tanksley added thirteen.  Dion Nesmith came off the bench to score eleven points while Bernardi and Nichols each had ten.  What was really impressive was the Pride had twelve assists and only four turnovers, while forcing fifteen Mountaineers' turnovers.

Eaves was the only double figure scorer for Appalachian State, scoring thirteen points, including seven of eight from three free throw line.  Eaves is 47 of 56 from the line on the season, shooting 84 percent from the line.  Over his last five games, Eaves has had fifty four free throw attempts, over ten a game.

What hurt Appalachian State was the Mountaineers shooting 3 of 17 from beyond the arc.  For a Davidson type offense to succeed, there must be solid three point shooting.   Coach Fox didn't get it from his team on Sunday and thus struggled offensively.   But I am confident over time, his team will succeed as they get used to that style of play.

Matthew and I headed home.  We wished we had more time to explore the Blowing Rock/Boone area. But it was a Sunday evening and Matthew had school on Monday.   As a result, our dinner was an Arby's along the way on Route 301, not the local establishment I was hoping we would dine at in Boone.

But Hofstra won and it turned out to be another successful road trip and now I know a little more about western North Carolina.    Our next opportunity to see Hofstra is back in New York on December 23 when we are visiting family on Long Island for the holidays starting that prior weekend.  The Pride play the Explorers of LaSalle at the Mack Center in what should be another fun contest.

This time we will have a much shorter trip from Levittown to Hempstead to find our religion.

Gamecocks Twin Bill (Recap of Appalachian St v. USC men's game &Stanford v. USC women's game)

With all that's happened the past four months, I have been more clueless than I normally am (ask my wife). I knew that the South Carolina men's basketball team had a 5:00 PM game yesterday. I was curious about the start time and I figured since they had the Saturday evening game at the Barclays Center vs. Manhattan, they decided on an early time for the game.

Of course, I had no idea until Ian McCormick, the ubiquitous writer for Mid Majority and my seat mate for last night's twin bill, told me that the #19 ranked USC women's team was hosting #1 Stanford in the second game of the doubleheader at 7:30 PM. Doubleheader? It doesn't say that on the ticket (and it doesn't). Well, I wasn't going to pass up watching the second game as well.

In the first game, the men's team faced a Mountaineers team that so far this season had won just one game vs. a Division I team (UMKC). However, with the exception of the Jacksonville game, the Gamecocks have struggled to a 4-2 home record going into last night's game. And last night turned out to be no exception.

Before the game started, Frank Martin came onto the court with a microphone talking about the tragedy in Newtown and imploring our country's leaders to find a solution so that this never occurs again.  He then led the crowd in a moment of silence.  Later on, before the women's game, Dawn Staley also did the same thing.

Early on, it looked like South Carolina was going to blow Appalachian State out of the arena. R.J. Slawson, seldom a scoring threat, scored five of the first seven Gamecocks' points. Then Eric Smith scored four straight points. South Carolina was out to an early 11-2 lead.

But the Gamecocks' couldn't extend the lead. The Mountaineers continued to hang around keeping the score within single digits. After a Mindaugas Kacinas basket finally put the Gamecocks up by double digits, 29-18 with six and a half minutes left, Appalachian State called a thirty second timeout.

Whatever was said during those thirty seconds by head coach Jason Capel apparently resonated with the Mountaineers' players. Appalachian State went on a 17-5 run over the next six minutes. Tevin Baskin and Jay Canty, a transfer from Xavier who scored 29 points vs. Missouri, scored thirteen of the seventeen Mountaineers' points. A Canty jumper put Appalachian State in the lead for the first time in the game 35-34. But Bruce Ellington buried a three pointer and South Carolina entered the locker room at the half up 37-35.

South Carolina shot fifty percent from the floor in the first half, but so did Appalachian State from two point field goal range. The only thing that kept the Mountaineers from leading at halftime was that they were shooting 0 of 6 from three point range as opposed to the Gamecocks 4 of 9 from beyond the arc.

In the second half, Appalachian State regained the lead as Mike Neal scored five straight points, including the Mountaineers' first three pointer of the game.  The Mountaineers were up 40-37 and the partisan Gamecocks' crowd was getting restless.

But behind crowd favorite Bruce Ellington, South Carolina responded with a 15-5 spurt over the next five minutes to jump back out in front 52-45.  Ellington had five points in that spurt.  This would be Ellington's last game until after the Outback Bowl on January 1st.

Appalachian State once again responded with a 9-2 spurt as Neal, Jamaal Trice and Tab Hamilton each scored three points to tie the game at 54 with a little less than seven and a half minutes left.  Again, the crowd grew restless with South Carolina's play.  Once again, the fans would be seeing another close home game.

Then Lakeem Jackson and LaShay Page took it upon themselves to put South Carolina ahead to stay.  Jackson and Page combined to score the next eleven Gamecocks' points.  After Mindaugas Kacinas capped the 13-4 spurt with a jumper, South Carolina was ahead 67-58 with two and a half minutes left in the game.

However, Appalachian State was not going down without a fight.  The Mountaineers started whittling away the Gamecocks' lead.  After Jackson was called for an inbounds violation, Canty tipped in a Neal miss and Appalachian State was down two, 71-69 with twenty two seconds left in the game.

The Mountaineers fouled Smith.  With a chance to go up two possessions, Smith only hit one of two free throws.  Appalachian State had a chance to tie but Nathan Healy's three pointer missed and Page sealed the game with two free throws.  South Carolina held on for a 74-69 win.

Jackson led the Gamecocks with sixteen points, Kacinas added twelve points and three blocks and Brenton Williams had a "quiet' eleven points.  Smith had a very solid game with nine assists and only two turnovers. Canty, Neal and Baskin each had sixteen points for the Mountaineers.

The crowd started filling up at the end of the men's game and during intermission.  It was clear that the women's game was the big game of the night.  The #1 ranked Cardinal playing on the home court of the #19 ranked Gamecocks.

Dawn Staley, an Olympian and considered one of the fifteen greatest women's basketball players of all time, took over as head coach of the South Carolina women's team in 2008. Previously, she had been the head coach of Temple, where she led the Owls to six NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years.  The Gamecocks improved in each of their first four seasons under Staley, including last season's 25-10 record which included a NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Staley's Gamecocks came into the game undefeated at 10-0. They are an excellent defensive team; first in the SEC in scoring defense, allowing only forty five points per game, first in field goal percentage defense at 31.8 percent and first in rebounding margin at +16.8 per game.

Meanwhile the Cardinal came in as the top scoring team in the PAC 12 at seventy eight points per game, shooting 51.8 percent from the field, also tops in the PAC 12. Stanford also can play defense, first in the PAC 12 at 31.6 percent field goal percentage defense and second in the PAC 12 in rebounding margin at +14.6 rebounds per game.

By the time the game started, the crowd at Colonial Life Arena had filled in.  Next to the men's game vs. Clemson, it was the largest crowd I had seen at Colonial life this season.  And the 8,118 fans in attendance were fully invested in the game from start till finish.

It was clear early on that this was going to be a physical, defensive game and the pace clearly favored the Gamecocks.  Stanford' height advantage affected the Gamecocks' offense as they struggled to get shots off against the Cardinal.  Stanford would have eleven blocks on the game. But on defense, the quicker Gamecocks swarmed all over the Cardinal players, especially around the paint, forcing numerous Stanford turnovers.

At the under twelve minute media timeout, the score was only 8-5 Stanford.   South Carolina didn't score their third basket until nine minutes left in the first half.  The Cardinal then went scoreless for five minutes which allowed the Gamecocks to briefly take a one point lead, 15-14 on a jumper by Tiffany Mitchell.

The Cardinal responded with an 8-2 spurt and held the Gamecocks to one basket over the next five minutes.  Chiney Ogwumike scored six straight points in that spurt.   Stanford would enter halftime leading 25-19. Considering South Carolina missed on a lot of good first half scoring opportunities and were only down six to the #1 ranked team in the country, the Gamecocks were in good shape.

During halftime, I learned something new.  Part of the halftime festivities during women's home games is Cocky bringing a large group of kids onto the court and leading them in the Chicken Dance. Members of the band joined and even some adults.  It was pretty humorous.

The second half saw South Carolina hold Stanford to one of six shooting in the first four plus minutes. This resulted in the Gamecocks cutting the lead to one point, 26-25 with fifteen and a half minutes left.
But Ogwumike, Amber Orrange and Toni Kokenis would score the Cardinal's next fourteen points and Stanford would continue to lead 40-39 with about five minutes left.

However, off a timeout,  Ieasia Walker would hit a three pointer to put South Carolina in the lead for the first time since four minutes left in the first half.  The Colonial Life Arena erupted and Stanford was now officially on the ropes as the Gamecocks led 42-40 with four and a half minutes left in the game.

After Orrange tied the game at forty two, Sancheon White gave South Carolina the lead back with a jumper.  But a three point play by Ogwumike put Stanford back up 45-44 with two minutes left.  The teams were going back and forth with the leads.  Ian and I were witnessing the best game we had seen all year so far.  It was certainly the most electric a Colonial Life Arena crowd had been for a basketball game all season.

Alegsia Welch had put South Carolina on her back in the second half, scoring twelve points in the second half, nearly half of the Gamecocks' second half points at the time.  This despite seemingly two Cardinal players on her in the paint.  Welch again tried to score with about 1:15 left in the game when she was fouled. With a chance to take the lead, Walsh was only able to hit one of two free throws. The game was tied at 45.

Mikala Ruef then hit a tough layup to put Stanford up two again, 47-45 with fifty four seconds left.  Walker was fouled on a layup attempt to the basket.  With a chance to tie, Walker missed the first free throw and then hit the second.  Stanford was now up one 47-46 with only twenty six seconds left.  If South Carolina couldn't steal the ball, then they would have to foul.

On the inbounds pass, Kokenis got the ball but appeared to run with the ball before she started dribbling.  But much to the chagrin and loud displeasure of the fans, no traveling call was made.  Kokenis was subsequently fouled and she hit both free throws.  Stanford was now up 49-46 with twenty three seconds left.

With a chance to tie, South Carolina turned the ball over and again was forced to foul.  Again Kokenis made two free throws and Stanford was up five, 51-46 with seven seconds left.  Much to the Gamecocks' credit, they didn't give up and Walker buried a three with 1.5 seconds left.   South Carolina was down two, 51-49 and praying for a Reggie Miller type steal and jumper.

It never came. Kokenis got the inbounds pass and was fouled.  She sank two more free throws, giving her a perfect 7 of 7 from the line.  Stanford earned a hard fought 53-49 win.

For Stanford, Ogwumike led all scorers with twenty one points, added fifteen rebounds and had four blocks. Kokenis added fifteen points, while Orrange had eleven points. Joslyn Tinkle added seven blocks for the Cardinal.

Welch led South Carolina with seventeen points, while Walker added fifteen points.  The Gamecocks had ten steals.  They forced eighteen turnovers on the Cardinal.  Stanford, which had led the PAC-12 in assists to turnover ratio at 1.33, had only four assists to go with those eighteen turnovers.  The Gamecocks only had seven turnovers.

Though the fans left disappointed, they gave the Gamecocks a good ovation after the game was finished. Dawn Staley's team nearly defeated the best team in the nation. More importantly, it showed that if given the proper amount of time to develop a winning program, the fans will come out and support the team.

I am sure Frank Martin was taking in the game and coming to the same conclusion.  The fans and administration just need to give him the same amount of time. Given his track record, the results mostly likely will be the same.